Dana Schutz recently has come under controversy after she depicted an image of Emmett Till and Black suffrage. The most critical critique Schutz encountered is described by Andrew Moisey as her inability to understand the concept of white production and gaze. Moisey describes the scenario in which Schutz work is put into retrospect, a white artist attempting to not only relate the black suffrage by also profit from it through her work.
Schutz believes he work is justified because she was attempting to relate but Moisey states she is crossing an ambiguous line of what white artists can and cannot do anymore. Moisey bring another piece of work into comparison J.M.W. Slave Ship of 1840, and compares how both works are done in similar practice but serve different purposes. For instance, Moisey describes Turner’s piece as an artifact, a historical archive in which Turner used his privilege to return an reflected gaze to the audience. The imagery is to capture a historical moment and make the viewing experience more reflected and critical and less abstract and artistic like Schutz Open Casket. The difference between the two described by Moisey shows how tedious it is to circumspect these issues in the ever evolving art community.